Last updated 11.06.26

Some days we know exactly what we need. Other days we just feel a bit off, without being able to put a finger on why. This feeling can be uncomfortable, and so our brain tends to assume it's favourite role of chief problem solver to help us get to the bottom of what's "wrong" and what we need to do to feel better. Sometimes, we can be left with a whole new to-do list which leaves us feeling stuck, overwhelmed or berating ourselves. 

In the modern world, we spin so many plates. It can feel like the moment we give time to one area of life, another seems to slip. For example, we might catch up on rest only to fall behind at work. We pour energy into the people we love and lose touch with own need for quiet. It can begin to feel as though we're always falling short somewhere, and it's easy for that to harden into self-criticism: a quiet sense that we just can't keep up.

Before reaching for change, come back to yourself

It's worth pausing on that self-critical voice and coming back to a core mindfulness principle: thoughts are not facts.

The voice that says you're falling behind, or that you should have all this worked out by now, is a thought. It can feel like solid truth, especially when it's loud. But a thought is something passing through, a suggestion from our brain, and we can choose how we respond. 

When we feel overwhelmed, our instinct is usually to think harder. To analyse, to plan, to work our way out of this difficult feeling. Yet we can't always think our way out of a thinking problem. Often the effort to solve everything at once is the very thing keeping us spinning.

In moments like these, mindfulness invites us to do something different: to step out of the swirl of thoughts and come back into the body. Feeling our feet on the floor. The weight of us on the chair. The breath, moving in its own time. It can sound almost too simple to help. But coming into the body tends to bring a quiet relief, and often a clearer sense of what's really going on.

So before taking stock of anything, it can helps to settle into the body first. If you'd like to give it a go, you could perhaps start with this 20-minute body scan below, guided by one of Breathworks Founders and author of The Little Mindfulness Workbook, Gary Hennessey. 

A grounding body scan meditation (20 minutes) 

Where the wellbeing wheel comes in

From this steadier place, the wheel becomes a kind way to look at your life, rather than another measure to fall short of.

Because what if nothing needs overhauling? What if life is meant to be in flow, the balance between its different parts shifting from week to week, and that's perfectly okay?

Wellbeing is rarely one single thing. It's made up of many threads: sleep, connection, movement, meaning, and more. None of them stays fixed for long. When one or two feel frayed, it can colour how everything else feels, even when we don't notice it directly.

The wellbeing wheel is a simple way to work with that movement rather than against it. Instead of asking how to fix everything at once, it helps you pause and ask some gentler questions:

• What actually matters to me, and keeps me feeling well? 
• What would nourish me right now? Or this week? 
• What can I give myself permission to let go of? 

Why this wheel is blank

There are many different versions of the wheel of wellbeing exercise. You may have come across wheels before that already have recommended areas of life to reflect on. We've kept this wheel blank on purpose, so you can choose eight factors that feel important for you, and contribute to your sense of wellbeing.

What feels essential to one person, perhaps solitude or creative time, might not feature at all for someone else. Starting from a blank wheel means the picture you build feels meaningful to you. 

Download your free wheel of wellbeing

Click here to download a PDF file containing a blank wheel of wellbeing. If you do not have access to a printer, you could draw the wheel yourself or even try a different format such as a list or bar chart. 

How to use it

1. Choose your eight areas

Begin with the parts of life that matter most to how you feel. Not what you think should matter, but what genuinely does.

You might include sleep, movement, how you eat, time in nature, relationships, work, creativity, money, or a spiritual or contemplative practice. Write one in each segment. Eight is enough to give a full picture without becoming overwhelming.

2. Rank each area from 0 to 10

Using the rings inside each segment, shade from the centre outwards to show how that area feels right now. The centre is zero, meaning it feels very low. The outer edge is ten, meaning it feels about as good as you could hope for. 

Remember, this is all relative and there's no right answer here. Go with your first instinct rather than overthinking it. You're describing how things feel today, not how they've always been or how you'd like them to be. A 10 is what feels like the best it could possibly be for you, and it would be very rare to even reach that score (unless you'd recently won the lottery, perhaps!) 

3. Step back and notice

Once all eight are shaded, take a moment to look at the shape you've made. Some wheels come out fairly even. Others are lopsided, full in some places and nearly empty in others. Both are completely normal.

Notice what comes up as you look. Something might surprise you. A low score might quietly confirm something you've been carrying for a while. Try to approach this with a sense of curiosity, letting any insights be interesting information rather than a catalyst for self-judgement. 

It's worth saying that some areas may sit lower because of things outside your control. Living with pain, illness or high levels of stress can place real limits on what's possible. The wheel isn't asking you to fix everything, or to feel bad about a low number. It's simply helping you see where you are.


4. Choose one or two areas

Rather than trying to lift everything at once, choose just one or two areas to focus on.

You might pick the lowest. Or you might choose one that feels more within reach, where a small shift could make a noticeable difference. If you find your mind darting around, you could try coming back into your body and tapping into a felt sense of what would nourish you right now. Sometimes this isn't always the logical answer, but something you feel drawn towards. Trust your sense of what feels right to begin with, and remember, you can always repeat the wheel another time!

5. Ask what would move it up just one point

This is where you might start to notice the brain's tendency to jump to a big overhaul. When we wish to improve something, we tend to overestimate what we would need to achieve to feel better. This can lead to unrealistic or unsustainable goals which, when left unmet, leave us feeling like we've failed, dampening our motivation.

We need to experience some wins to trigger the motivational dopamine chemicals in our brain, that spurs us to repeat the action in future. This exercise is about lowering the entry point for those wins, helping us feel more confident that we can achieve them, especially on high pain or low energy days. 

So ask yourself: what could I do to move my score up just one point? Maybe even half a point, if that feels too daunting. This is not about reaching a 10. 

If rest is sitting at a four, a single point might be going to bed twenty minutes earlier, or switching your phone off at a certain time to encourage a natural wind down. If connection is at a five, sending one message to a friend you've been meaning to check in with might nudge that towards a 6. 

It's easy to assume a change this small won't make much difference. But often it does. Small steps, taken gently, tend to hold longer than big resolutions made in a rush of determination. Small, kind changes have a way of building a quiet momentum of their own.

Kindness, kindness, kindness!

There is nothing wrong with wanting to better ourselves and make positive changes in our lives, but a mindful approach to behaviour change would always come back to a core principle: compassion. Khemagita Farley, one of our experienced teachers leading our September HEALS Wellbeing Course, offers this gentle piece of advice in her blog on the topic: 

Read Khemagita's full blog here

Coming back to the wheel

The wheel is a snapshot, not a verdict. Your scores will shift from week to week, and that's exactly as it should be.

You might return to it once a month, or whenever you sense something feels off. Over time it can become a quiet way of staying in touch with yourself.

So when you have a few quiet minutes, find somewhere comfortable and begin. There's no need to share it or get it right. This one is just for you.

If you'd like to go a little deeper

Taking stock like this is something you can do on your own, whenever you need it. But if it speaks to you, and you'd like to explore these different areas of life with a bit more time and support, you might be interested in our mindfulness-based wellbeing programme, HEALS. 

HEALS is an eight-week course, starting on Monday 7th September and led by Breathworks teacher Khemagita Farley. It works in much the same spirit as the wheel: a gentle, practical way of looking across the areas that shape your health and wellbeing, from sleep, movement and nutrition to awareness and self-compassion, and making small changes that hold over time.

Like the wheel, it starts where you are. There's no pressure to overhaul your life, and no experience of mindfulness needed to begin. It's designed especially for people living with chronic pain, illness or fatigue, or anyone else looking to boost their wellbeing.

If that sounds like something you'd value, we warmly invite you to learn more here and see if it feels right for you.